Archive | October, 2008

A Generation of God-Chasers

31 Oct

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14

This verse was the focus of a book that an informal group of friends and I read in high school called The God Chasers by Tommy Tenny.  We read the book together, prayed for each other, served our community, had fun (at times way too much).  This was just one of the ways that God got a hold of a group of us as young people in Columbus, IN.

Often this motley crew would hang out or meet without specific agenda, sometimes just to pray for each other, people close to us, our city, our country, our families, against spiritual attacks.  We longed to see God come and have His way.  We also spent time studying the Bible and digging into things that were important to us.

Some of our prayers were answered immediately, others seemed to be ignored.  From what I can remember, many of mine got answered in a much better way than what I asked for.

I remember several of our leaders in the various ministries that we were involved in would often tell us that they really thought that God was going to use our generation of young people in big ways.  In those few years, we saw many of our friends come to follow Jesus for the first time — all to the glory of God. 

Today I think about where that group is and what God is doing with us.  I rejoice that many of us our still about the business of the Kingdom, many of us in some form of ministry.  Here is where a few of us from this group are serving today:

John Bundick is Youth Director @ Hartford City UMC.  He has an iPhone and pushes students to love without ceasing.

Jon Boriss is a doing a creative arts internship @ 2|42 Community Church in where he claims to work with the best middle and high school students ever in Whitmore Lake, MI.

Tim Hollowell teaches at John Marshall Community High School (IPS), in Indianapolis.

Lindsey Bodine continues to love students at North View Assembly of God in Columbus, IN.

Katie Proctor is Youth Director @ Faith Luthern Church in Andover, MA.

Many of our friends continue to faithfully seek God and love others in their churches, communities, and online.

I am very happy to be a part of a generation of people who started as young people and are now spending our lives advancing the Kingdom by leading and loving others. 

On behalf of all of those mentioned here and the countless others, thank you to all of our youth workers, pastors, volunteers and parents.  Every time you hosted a club, youth group, donated, prayed for us, took phone calls, or encouraged us you were teaching us how to love and live. 

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9

A note to all of us:  Keep going.  It is worth it.

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillz

St. Augustine on Hope.

30 Oct

http://www.northlandposter.com/catalog/p811.html

My Name in Chinese

29 Oct

At work the other day we had a business units / affinity groups conference where you could walk around and learn about what people are interesting in or what they do in the corporation. Lots of S.W.A.G.

One of the affinity groups was about Chinese culture. A calligrapher was on hand to write visitors’ names in some form of Chinese (I apologize for not knowing what).

The three characters that are used to sound out my name, Chris (I chose not to use CWillZ), are:

cool

fortune

thinking

Neat huh?

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

Affirmation and Confusion

29 Oct

Yesterday two very different students, unprompted, shared with me their visions for my life. 

At lunch, Alex said, “I could see you being a college professor like 20 years from now.” I can see this happening.

Later that night another student was asking about our worship center. “Do you have church in there? Do you ever preach? I think you should be a pastor or something.  You know alot about this God stuff.”  I can see this happening.

Another semi-regular occurrence is for people to address me jokingly as “senator Williams”, or some variation of that.  I am a little less sure about the whole public office thing.

After all, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

All [Government?] Spending is Redistribution of Wealth

28 Oct

Any time you spend money or resources of any kind, you redistribute wealth. The “R” has been misused over the last few weeks, redistribution does not necessarily imply socialism.

Obviously the intended significance of redistribution over the last few weeks by the candidates for president is the 2nd definition. They want to paint a picture of themselves or their opponents by using historically charged paint. On one end of the color spectrum, there is full blown state ownership and control of resources, and on the other end there is unrestricted, unregulated completely free markets.

When we are talking about economics, the above ends of the color spectrum are commonly referred to as liberal or conservative. Liberal means that the government is big– it has (is given, by voters) the power to spend money on (hopefully) what its people needs. Conservative means that government is small–it has(is given, by voters) less or no power to spend money, in hopes that the market and individuals will takes are of thier own needs. My suggestion is that you try and decide what you think about the issue before you worry about how you or others will apply this label to you.

Do we risk our, the people’s, resources in the hands of the government and fight continually for those resources to be spent in proper, good, just ways? Do we, the people, not allow government to control spending and therefore rely on ourselves to spend money in proper, good, and just ways?

If you really look at Barack Obama and John McCain, neither one is really that fiscally conservative nor liberal. Certainly Barack looks to be the bigger spender and therefore will require more money to accomplish that. Before you jump on or off that wagon, realize that McCain’s spending plan isn’t really that much less. The question, at least for me, is more about how these men are wanting to spend the people’s money. If you really want to keep your money, look to Ron Paul.

Here is my real point: Please, please, please spend your money in a way that brings justice to this time and place that we call today on planet Earth. Evaluate for yourselves the role and potential of government and vote/write letters accordingly. In your private or public life, look at all that you have and think of the good you, or we, can do with that.

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

The Jolt of James: Reading ‘Rich’ as a Rich Person

24 Oct

I have been ‘doing’ the Book of James recently for my quiet times. Parts of this little book are frighteningly surprising to me. Get this: I can remember teaching from James at least 4 times during high school and possibly my first year of college.  I should know what it says.

I didn’t spend much time studying James as a part of my courses at Taylor (I can only remember one time, and that was really about the controversy involving Martin Luther and sola fide).  When I started to spend time in it recently I really wasn’t expecting to find (that much) new content.  wrong.

That words of the book have not changed (in fact the notes I took in the margins during high school are still in my Bible). So why does it seem so….new?

Never before did I truly consider myself rich and when I read the Bible. I thought that this term referred to people like Oprah, Donald Trump, or Bill Gates.  FACT: If you have means of reading this post, you are probably rich too.

Isn’t it crazy how I am have read those 5 chapters probably 100+ times and have still missed so much of what it actually says?

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

One Battle Won: The Student Loan Saga Begins

22 Oct

Today I made a preemptive strike against the soon-to-be whelming war that is paying off student loans.  Of course, this is an example of a necessary yet reactionary measure – the proactive and wisest solution would have been not to take on debt in the first place.

My loans go into repayment in November, which means that the first payments are due in December.  I have set up my budget so that I will be able to pay over the minimum payments, reducing the overall cost of the loans (if you are sure to have the amount you pay over go towards the principle of the loan).  Since I have been living off my budget for several months, today I was able to pay off the smallest loan completely.  It feels good to win this first battle.

I have chosen the path of repayment prescribed by Dave Ramsey.  He calls it the Debt Snowball.  Here is basically how it works:

List all of the debts you owe and arrange them from smallest to largest.  Pay all the minimum payments and then pay over as much as you can against the loan/debt on which you owe the least amount of money.  When that debt is paid off, take the money you would be paying against it towards the next loan. When the second loan is paid off, apply all the money you were putting towards it towards the next loan.  Battle by battle, you win the war.

Although I tremendously regret getting myself into this debt, today is a victory. 

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

Related:

My Personal Finance Posts

Make Love, Not Debt - A Very Active Blog about Personal Finance

Dave Ramsey - Money Stud

Crown Financial -  Biblically Sound Teaching on Money

Good Sense -  Willow Creek’s Stewardship Ministry

 Finances & Spirituality by Adam Lehman

My Advice to McCain Camp: Pick Up Pence

20 Oct

If you have asked me what I really think about the Presidential race this year, you have known that I think that both of the candidates are good picks.  However, I cannot say the same for the VP picks.

Palin is a gamble, and not the best choice.  She is not ready to be president.  What is more immediately important to McCain is that she isolates independents and even some more moderate republicans (like Colin Powell).

So what to do, Johhny? The best thing would be to cut your losses with Palin, invite her to be a Cabinet member, and pick up Mike Pence (R-IN).  Pence is a people’s conservative that possesses common sense and actual experience.  That is not to mention that he represents a state not unlike most the states in which the battle for the votes is feircest. (Polls of IN indicate almost a dead tie – we have not given our electoral votes to a Dem since LBJ).

Roll the dice one more time you old gambler.

Pence not Palin. Do it quickly! If you don’t you will lose.  If you win with Pence, even the most worried Dems would much rather have him in office than Palin.

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

Amazing Grace the Film: A Review and Reflection

17 Oct

Last night we watched Amazing Grace, a movie that portrays the life of leading British politician William Wilberforce and his fight to pass bills leading to the abolition of the slave trade.  While I have not checked into the historicity of the film, I trust that it is at least conceptually accurate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolitionism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolitionism

As a young man, Wilberforce was faced with the dillema of choice between life of ministry or of politics.  He had a good life as a young statesman, but was inspired by his pastor John Newton, who was reformed former slave trader and writer of the hymn “Amazing Grace”.  For him, it was very apparent that the solution to the dillema was ironically obvious.  God’s will for ‘Wilby’ was to proclaim God’s justice and greatness through his work as a statesman (MP, Prime Minister). 

There are many great lessons to write about from this film and this truly inspired event of history.  I will name a few today and tomorrow I will post about what is actually on my heart heavily after seeing this film.

1) You often must change the culture before you can change laws, and even then it will be costly.

2) The kindness of a spouse and good friends can inspire the weariest of souls.

C) We are terrible sinners.

$) Christ is an amazing savior.

5) Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillz

The ‘Help! I need a new header for this blog.’ Contest.

15 Oct

It’s time to pretty it up a bit, or something…

If you are reading this from Facebook or an RSS reader, please go to http://cwillz.wordpress.com - it won’t make sense otherwise.

The free wordpress thing(weird car-in-tunnel pic) has been great, but its not me. Those of you who know me, freely submit ideas/images that represent me. Those of you who don’t, be glad. Then, give me ideas.

I, of course, have some ideas but I don’t want to stifle the creativity.

The person whose idea/image is selected(by me) wins a free autographed copy of my next book and a $5 gift card to the place of your choosing within ethical bounds.

Don’t be a pirate

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

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